Integration of DSWD social pension system with service provider for a door to door mobile pay-out system /
Sandy Roy L. Ocampo.
- xii, 141 leaves : illustrations (chiefly color)
Public Management Development Program
Convinced of the value and continuing positive contribution of senior citizens to national development, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) remains steadfast in its commitment of providing various social protection support to older persons, One of these is the social pension program. The Department, in compliance with Republic Act No. 9994 or the "Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010", through the social pension program, provides a monthly stipend of P500 to 65 years old and above to indigent senior citizens who are frail, sickly, or have disabilities, those not receiving pension from the Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), or Veterans Pension and do not have permanent source of income or regular support from relatives. The program aims to improve the living condition of eligible senior citizens and to protect them from neglect, abuse, or deprivation. Indeed, it is widely acknowledge here an abroad to be one of the most effective tools to reduce old age poverty. In implementing the program, the DSWD closely cooperates with Local Government Units (LGUs), Office of the Senior Citizen Affairs, and other anti-poverty cluster partners to ensure accurate and timely distribution of social pension to the Department has initially utilized three modes of cash distribution, There are; (1) through the transfer of funds to the Local Government Units, (2) Postal money order and (3) through Special Disbursing Officers (SDOs) who go to the municipalities to deliver the stipend of the social pensioners, as the majority of the beneficiaries live in hard to reach far-flung areas. However, these available modes of payments are subject to loopholes such as inexplicable delays in the supposedly timely payment of social pensions, delays and/or failure in liquidation of fund disbursement leading to further deferment in subsequent payouts. Acknowledging these problems in the program's current payout system, this Re-Entry Project was conceptualized mainly to provide refinements on the social pension's policy guidelines and to introduce the concept of an automated door-to-door delivery system as a new mode of payment. This mode of payment is seen as the most efficient delivery system most suitable for the target population as it ensures that payment inconsistencies are reduced to a minimum. It also resolve the inconvenience and predicament of claiming the payout on the part of the frail and sickly senior citizens. The proposed policy guideline changes deal directly on how the beneficiaries will be selected by using only a single source of data, the National Household Targeting System database. This would provide efficient new system that could be automated and totally eradicate current issues, such as the insertion of beneficiaries data coming from unscrupulous sources. The automation would result into an efficient system that can be used in cross-checking records, monitoring and managing transactions pertaining to the beneficiaries' profiles and transaction. This would also provide a way to enhance the current payout mechanism and open up a way for more providers can then be achieved so that it can be used for an efficient delviery of benefits via Door-to-door. A Cost Benefit Analysis was conducted to ensure that a new mode of payout system would provide more value to the beneficiaries in terms of payment timeline and convenience. The result of the cost benefit analysis proved that a door-to-door delivery system would give the best value to implement since it ensure the shortest benefit delivery timeline and with the maximum convenience to the senior citizens.